Pre-St. Patrick’s Day at Mira Vista RESORT

The sky was almost black (with the exception of the celestial lights) when I left home to attend the annual pre-St.Patrick's Day event at Mira Vista. I left extra early since the meteorological prognosticators said that there would be spring winds and I certainly wanted to get to the Tucson area before any wild "breezes" caused I-10 to be closed.

That was a wise decision even though the interstate was not closed, the winds did pick up before I got to the state line and my fuel tank had to be filled on the outskirts of Tucson. I know that all of this personal stuff is not interested to you dear reader, but I felt that I had to explain why I arrived at Lordsburg at sunrise that day. The views were spectacular in all directions. The Little Hatchita Mountains, the Burro Mountains in New Mexico as well as the Peloncillo and the Chiricahua Mountains on the Mexican border in Arizona were totally white with snow. The sky was a deep, high altitude blue and the sun was shining. When I passed that area and all of the way to Texas Canyon in Arizona, there was snow on the side of the interstate.

The wind was high and outside of my vehicle, it was not at all comfortable, but it was beautiful.

When I got to Tucson, there was no snow except in the mountains and I wondered if the Mount Lemon ski area was able to open this year. That is the southernmost ski area in the country.

Then I arrived at Mira Vista RESORT.

The weather was great there most of the weekend, though on Friday, the clouds moved in along with some wind. About 9 drops of rain fell on the deck next to the conversation pool.. A half hour later, the sun came out, the clouds disappeared and the wind died.

Both of the hot tubs were well used. The conversation pool hosted at least half of the population of Tucson, but it was all very friendly.

Unlike last year, I did not meet any visitors who were there only to attend the spring training games of the various major league baseball teams. Maybe the weather scared the baseball fans away.

In the early evening on Saturday, woodland creatures such as pixies, pigwidgeons and leprechauns started showing up. After a fine meal of corned beef and cabbage, the lounge opened to some of the regular dancing (pixies, pigwidgeons and leprechauns love to dance) music there were some extra songs extolling the virtues of humpty-backed camels, chimpanzees as well as green alligators and long-naked geese etc.

The next day was calm, clear and beautiful. The volleyball pool was in business all day (as it had been on Saturday).

It was a really fun weekend.

Morning Sky: The bright morning "star" this month is our largest air-bag (outside of the Washington, DC beltway). He will be shining brightly in the eastern sky just before dawn this month. Since we have just passed the Vernal Equinox, that dawn will start getting earlier each day.

Evening Sky; You can find Saturn in the southeastern sky after the sky becomes dark. Through the night, Saturn works his way across the southern sky. He is not very noticeable yet, but I mentioned him because he finally is starting to open up his rings for Earth-bound viewers. They are only slightly open at this time, but as the year passes, they will become more and more spectacular.

In the early part of the month, you will be able to have a good view of brilliant Venus hanging out with her little buddy, Mercury in the western sky right after sunset. They will be there next to each other (Venus is the bright one) all of the way until Income Tax Day with Mercury sinking closer to the horizon in an attempt to hide from the IRS. His attempts will be thwarted on 15 April when the crescent Moon moves in just above him in the fading evening twilight.

Mars continues to lose its brightness. Like last month, Mars again loses half of its brightness in the first half of April. You can find Mars high in the southern sky at sunset. It is hanging out with those nutty Gemini twin brothers, Castor and Pollux. Mars is still brighter than either of them, but not by much. Try to find Mars early in the month, then pull out your binoculars around the middle of the month and look at him. He will be paying a visit to that little community called M44, but their close friends call them the Beehive Cluster. If you can find them with your binoculars, you will see why.

April is the most active month for meteor activity in the (first half) of the year. Sorry, I am trying to stir up some excitement here for meteor showers.

Actually April is sort of active for meteor showers, but for the most part the meteors are loners. That means that they probably were part of other major showers, but somehow got out of formation and are traveling in small groups on their own now. There is, of course, the Lyrid Meteor Shower which will peak in the southern sky around 22 April. That is the only truly organized shower in the month. It will start up around 16 April and have nightly performances through 25 April.

There are other disorganized showers that are sort of "catch as catch can" throughout the whole month. Many people like to group these all together and call them the "Virginid" Meteor Shower since most of them appear to come from the constellation Virgo, but they are not all in the same group. There are also some others that originate from other places in the sky. All and all it makes for interesting spring viewing of the night sky other than planet and stellar viewing.